214 The Botanical Gazette. [J ul y» 



Science and Art Department printed in our first chapter, he will see 

 'hat we have cleared off [but not up] not only the whole of the general 



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Tiorphology, histology and physiology, but also . . . " 



Here is the beginning of the discussion of vessels: "A vessel in 

 botany [sic] is formed out of a number of cells placed vertically one 

 above the other, whose partition walls vanish. The simplest kind of 

 vessels are vasa propria (vessels proper)— elongated cells with a thick- 

 ening of the wall that takes the form of a very fine network. The 

 student will note once again how artificial our definitions are, and how 

 the botanical categories overlap each other. A vessel is defined as a 

 tube formed by the fusion of several cells, and the first kind of vessel 

 described, vas proprium, is made up of one cell. The second form of 

 vessel is the sieve tube. . . . sieve tubes are also called vesicular 



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or utricular vessels. They are common in the bulb of the onion 

 . . . and other Monocotyledons. The sieve tubes contain a milky 

 juice and very often crystals." 



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The physiology is no better: "... the roots take in the 

 nitrogen-containing food-stuffs and the leaves especially take in the 

 carbon-containing food-stuff. From the roots the former must move 

 up until they meet the latter coming down from the green parts. 

 When the two sets of food-stuffs meet, the manufacture of those im- 

 portant plant structures that contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitro- 

 gen, must occur, and from the place where this manufacture occurs, 

 diffusion of these substances to other parts of the plant must follow. 



H^his taking in of food is assimilation. 



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But to continue would be to occupy space to no good purpose. 

 What we have given is not a selection of isolated blunders. It might 

 be increased ten-fold without exhausting the supply of error and ab- 

 surdity. Some of the illustrations, could we reproduce them, would 

 be as ludicrous as the text. 



We should be glad to be able to say something favorable about this 

 book, if, even after careful search, we could find it. But the plan is 

 crude and the execution wretched. Yet if we do not mistake the tone 

 of the book the author feels that he has done a creditable piece of 

 work, and the publisher hopes to gain for it a sale in this country. It 

 is a pity that so reputable a house should be so imposed upon by a 

 worse than worthless text-book. 



